A necessary expense

Ventura County Star
Published 4:24 p.m. PT Jan. 9, 2019

In this picture taken Thursday, April 3, 2014, giant machines dig for brown coal at the open-cast mining Garzweiler in front of a smoking power plant near the city of Grevenbroich in western Germany. After concluding that global warming is almost certainly man-made and poses a grave threat to humanity, the U.N.-sponsored expert panel on climate change is moving on to the next phase: what to do about it. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, will meet next week in Berlin to chart ways for the world to rein in the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are overheating the planet. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)(Photo: Martin Meissner, AP)

Thanks to The Star for asking this. Such a deal — paying up to 10 percent more for 100 percent green is a necessary business expense for me, and what’s wrong with altruistic motives? Who doesn’t care about life on Earth continuing for future generations?

If a provocative editorial sells more papers by blaming environmentalist influence on two dozen visionary local elected officials, I’m OK with that. You got it out there — “What’s a smaller carbon footprint worth?”

Another act of climate courage late last year was the introduction of the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act for a rising federal tax on fossil fuel extraction. Promoted by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and endorsed by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, this federal policy would raise money from dirty energy producers and distribute it to households to afford clean alternatives.

The call for a carbon tax validates this local decision making a statement that the 100 percent green product is best for me and the future of my city. Only in the cities that chose the 100 percent green default, low-income ratepayers get it at no cost. Comparing apples with apples, the 100 percent green product from the Clean Power Alliance already costs way less than Edison’s 100 percet renewable energy.

With an eventual, long-overdue federal carbon tax, the Clean Power Alliance should be able to supply 100 percent green to everyone for less than Edison’s base dirty-energy rate while reducing risks of wildfires and natural gas explosions and increasing local green jobs. I’m always alert to products for the future from new suppliers with foresight.

Editor: The author is Ventura Group Leader of the Citizens' Climate Lobby.

Jan Dietrick, Ventura

Read or Share this story: https://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/readers/2019/01/09/necessary-expense/2531718002/